Some 45 Jews in Sa'ada in Yemen have left their homes after being threatened by radical Muslims and are seeking the president and government's help, the Saudi daily Al Wattan reported yesterday.

The extremists reportedly told the Jews to leave their homes within 10 days, and threatened that those who stayed would be killed or their children abducted and their homes looted.

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The Jews moved into a hotel in the city of Sa'ada, north of the capital Sana. A formal complaint was submitted to Yemenite President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the report said.

The threats are attributed to followers of Shi'ite religious leader Hossein Bader a-Din al-Khouty, who was killed in clashes with government forces in 2005. The Jews have received letters alleging that they have been acting "first and foremost to serve global Zionism" and are working ceaselessly "at corrupting people and making them abandon their moral and religious values."

A Jew named Yihya Yosef Musa told Al-Wattan that one of the Muslim leaders said he wanted no Jews to remain in the Sa'ada region. "We have been driven from our homes, our money has been lost, we cannot feed our children. We came to plead with the president and government to treat us properly because we are Yemenis," he said.